When a device is playing out a first media stream, the device determines a target time for beginning playout of a second media stream in place of the first media stream. The device then starts a stream-transition process that is expected to take anywhere from a minimum expected transition duration to a maximum expected transition duration, and the device starts the transition process in advance of the determined target time by the maximum expected transition duration, to help ensure timely starting of playout of the second media stream. Further, for an uncertainty period that extends from the minimum expected transition duration after the starting to the maximum expected transition duration after the starting, the device generates and plays a sequence of transition frames to help mask transition from the first media stream to the second media stream.

In various example embodiments, a system and method for managing media bandwidth usage are disclosed. One disclosed method includes determining a network connection state of a computing device, receiving a request that requests media content, altering the request to request a synthetic representation of the media content instead of the media content in response to the network connection state being one of a set of predefined network connection states and the media content violating one or more restrictions of the network connection state, and requesting the media content in response to a user selecting the synthetic representation.

Systems and methods that adaptively grant amounts of bandwidth to a remote device for upstream transmissions. The systems and methods may adaptively grant a first amount of bandwidth during a first interval, and vary the amount of bandwidth proactively granted over subsequent intervals using a metric of usage of the proactive bandwidth granted.

Systems, methods and computer-readable storage media for storing or caching targeted content on a receiver device using existing bandwidth within a media network are described. For example, unused bandwidth within a transport stream may be detected and targeted content may be inserted into the transport stream within the unused bandwidth. The targeted content may include targeted advertisements for a household addressable media network. The transport stream may be transmitted to the receiver device which may access and store the targeted content responsive to various targeted content signals. For instance, the transport stream may include targeted content signals configured to trigger the receive device to access and store the targeted content. The transport stream may include a commercial feed transport stream.

Switched digital television programming for video-on-demand and other interactive television services are combined utilizing class-based, multi-dimensional decision logic to simultaneously optimize video quality and audio uniformity while minimizing latency during user interactions with the system over an unmanaged network. For example, a method of adapting content-stream bandwidth includes generating a content stream for transmission over an unmanaged network with varying capacity; sending the content stream, via the unmanaged network, toward a client device; monitoring the capacity of the unmanaged network; determining whether an aggregate bandwidth of an upcoming portion of the content stream fits the capacity, wherein the upcoming portion of the content stream corresponds to a respective frame time and includes video content and user-interface data; and, in response to a determination that the aggregate bandwidth does not fit the capacity, reducing a size of the upcoming portion of the content stream.

Embodiments are disclosed for dynamically updating bandwidth allocations in an AVB communication system. In some embodiments, a device includes a communication interface communicatively connectable to at least one other device in a communication network and configured to transmit data via the communication network, a processor, and a storage device that stores instructions executable by the processor to detect an incoming data stream, and determine an amount of bandwidth to be used by the data stream. The instructions are further executable to update a bandwidth allocation for the data stream based on the determined amount of bandwidth.

A method and an apparatus can include a system processor control and a system controller. The system controller can retrieve data from at least one database, the data including information associated with at least one of subscribers, multimedia content, and customer premises equipment. The system processor can formulate an input dataset from the retrieved data, perform nonlinear manifold clustering on the input dataset to formulate clusters, and determine a recommendation of multimedia content, the recommendation of multimedia content being based on a metric distance between a subscriber and a multimedia content. The system controller can transmit, to a customer premises equipment of the subscriber, the recommendation of multimedia content.

A session management involves registering at least one IPTV application in a registration table so that the registration table includes at least a respective identifier of the IPTV applications. The IPTV applications are invokable at a set top box and can be so-called embedded applications and/or browser-based applications. An event requiring the invocation of an IPTV application at the set top box is detected and triggers a look-up in the registration table. The registration table is thus used as source to indicate those IPTV applications that are potentially available and can be launched at the set top box. One of the registered applications is launched for the purpose of handling the detected event.

Future data connection quality may be predicted based on past data connection quality, and future requests for data may be predicted based on past requests. These predictions may be used to help decide whether, when, and/or how to deliver the data in a proactive manner. For example, according to some aspects described herein, a future data connection quality may be predicted based at least on historical data connection quality. It may be determined whether to pre-deliver at least a first portion of an item of content based at least on the predicted future data connection quality. If so, then the at least the portion of the item of content may be pre-delivered to the device and/or to another destination.

The VIDEO DELIVERY EXPEDITION APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS (“VDE”) transform Internet content data access request via VDE components into media content playback at a client device. In one implementation, the VDE may issue a notification or a user interface element to a user after delivery of a process one data from the server to a client; and trigger a background delivery of a process two data, wherein the triggering occurs when the user initiates playback of said process one data.